This was supposed to be a general post on Zora childhood, but suddenly I found myself with 657676 pictures of baby Dunma and it became unmanageable to finish today. Baby Brigade day it is!
Read more for ~~shenanigans~~
Before I get into more character-specific lore, this picture is a good ilustration of Zora in various moments of their childhood (which I will talk about in detail later, once I'm done wrangling the contents of Rivan's photo album).
Link is around 11 here, so he still hasn't pulled the Master Sword and thus is free to mess around with his Domain friends. This would make Bazz 29yo, Rivan 25yo and Gaddison 23yo - a Zora equivalent of an older child to a preteen. Bazz's height doesn't actually have that much to do with the fact that he's older, he just happened to hit an early growth spurt.
(Wait, who gave this kid a real sword????)
Then we have Mipha at 57yo (something like a 14-15yo teenager, very short for her age, she should be at least a full head taller at this point) and a slightly younger Kodah, who is in her 40s.
Sidon should actually be like, barely hatched and still bopping around in a pool as a tadpole if we followed the proper canon, but I stretched the timeline a bit for the sake of having a cute group picture. He's therefore in his 6yo, freshly-figured-out-this-legs-business toddler form.
Now, our beloved Big Bad Bazz Brigade (A+ for naming, Bazz, really).
(Did you know that in Japanese it's called ちびっ子スババ団 (Chibikko Subaba Dan) which would translate to something like "Little Bazz Gang"? Japanese Bazz gets the gold star for being Slightly Less Cringe I guess.
Bazz came up with the Brigade in his late teens (so as something like a 6/7yo), to make his and Rivan's escapades sound more serious, Gaddison joined shortly after, impressing the boys with her confidence and strength.
As a kid, Bazz was an absolute terror to both adults and other children. He wouldn't do anything that made him look uncool, he talked back to grown-ups he considered lower status, and then bullied kids who wouldn't accept his perceived superiority during games.
(I mean, he was rich, with important parents, and also pretty big and strong for his age. No wonder it went to his head. Also can't forget all the parental neglect.)
The Brigade only worked if he was the leader and if it was also named for him, of course. Rivan already had some special treatment from Bazz, being his oldest friend (also his parents were basically raising Bazz at this point). Gaddison found him obnoxious, but putting him a chokehold a few times seemed to grant her some amount of respect. And was easier than like, actually talking to people.
Other kids weren't very interested, needless to say.
Early Brigade days consisted mostly of catching frogs and whacking reeds with sticks. Bazz turned out to be a pretty good leader, coming up with activities, organizing heists and then (usually) weaseling them out of any consequences. It was little more than Messing Around But With A Name though.
Then 4yo Link arrives in the Domain and suddenly the Brigade business becomes much more serious. As soon as he realizes how valuable the tiny Hylian child is, Bazz immediately gets him to join his club and is later a bit disappointed about being stopped from sparring with a literal four year old.
For roughly six years Link travels back and forth between Hateno and the Domain, usually spending at least one season in a year with the Zora. He mostly hangs out with the Brigade, as they always seem to get in the most exciting predicaments. As they teach him how to swim and fish and handspeak, he becomes more Zora than Hylian in their eyes.
When Link's around 10yo, he and Bazz start practicing with swords. Rivan and Gaddison are a bit dejected, as they're too small to join, and Bazz seems to care about little else at this point. The Brigade is in shambles.
After a 12yo Link pulls out the Master Sword, his visits suddenly stop and the Brigade is now left completely aimless. They try to go back to pre-Link times, but it doesn't really work. After around two years Link starts appearing in the Domain again, though for much shorter periods and he usually just hangs out with Mipha.
At 16, Link is now officially a knight and somehow this results in him visiting the Domain a bit more regularly. In the meantime Bazz got another growth spurt, putting him roughly at Link's height, which means they can train proper swords now. This seems to catch Link's interest, enough that they are kinda hanging out again. Bazz still has to share him with Mipha though, which makes him quietly furious (she already took his dad! when will she have enough!).
Rivan and Gaddison come over for post-training lunches sometimes. Kodah tries to join the Brigade, but is denied (we all know you just want to be around Link, Kodah).
Around this time 4yo Sidon is finally allowed outside the palace, and seeing how the Mipha-Link-Bazz connection makes the Brigade hover in his periphery, he also wants to join. Is denied on the being-a-baby grounds. Bazz feels really smug about telling "no" to a Prince (who is a literal baby).
Then Link becomes Zelda's knight and his Domain visits stop for good. The Brigade sees him once or twice on official Hylian Royal Business, but he pretends he doesn't know them. It sucks. The group loses momentum again while Bazz, being tall enough to hold an adult size spear, starts getting trained by Seggin.
After that the Calamity strikes and well, childhood clubs stop mattering for a very, very long time. With how important Link became for the Brigade, it can't really go on after his death. It's dissolved without anyone really saying anything and Bazz, Rivan and Gaddison each deal with the war and its aftermath separately.
Wow that got heavy! Don't worry, they were all mostly fine, and of course they did reconnect later~ I'll probably tell you guys eventually.
